Costs of Patient Outflow and Public Perceptions of Regional National University Hospitals

Abstract

With Korea’s local healthcare in a state verging on crisis, concerns are growing about the insufficient capacity of national university-affiliated hospitals and the social costs arising from patients increasingly seeking care at Seoul-based tertiary care hospitals. The net cost of transportation and lodging alone, incurred by local patients using services at these Seoul-based institutions instead of their nearby national university-affiliated hospitals, is estimated at KRW421.1 million. With opportunity costs and differences in healthcare expenses taken account of, the total net cost may amount to as much as KRW4.627 trillion. The Survey of Local Residents’ Perception of National University-Affiliated Hospitals found that as many as 81.2 percent of those surveyed were concerned (including ‘very concerned’) about healthcare disparities between the Capital Region and the other regions. For severe illnesses, respondents were more in favor of using tertiary-care general hospitals in the Capital Region than their local national university-affiliated hospitals; 80.9 percent supported government assistance for these general hospitals in non-Capital regions.